When Amber Dubois went missing more than a year ago, family members, friends, law enforcement agents and strangers set out to find the Escondido teenager.

In the months that followed, an awful uncertainty gnawed at the hopes many initially held that the 14-year-old girl would be found alive.

On Saturday, a memorial for the freckle-faced freshman will be held at the Escondido High School stadium, an event her family has designed to celebrate Amber’s life and to comfort those aching over her death.

Amber’s remains were found March 6 in a rugged hillside area north of Pala. She had vanished while walking to school Feb. 13, 2009.

“I think it’s going to be very upbeat in Amber’s honor,” said Tina Leach, part of a core group of volunteers who spent most weekends for 13 months searching for Amber and blanketing the county with thousands of fliers. “I think it will bring resolution. It’s just very hard to believe this has happened.”

Leach didn’t know Amber or her family when the teen disappeared, but the mission of finding her brought Leach close to Amber’s parents, Carrie McGonigle and Moe Dubois. Leach was with McGonigle when word came of the discovery in Pala.

“I felt that Amber was alive the whole time,” Leach said. “The volunteers became a family, and we wanted to bring Amber home. We did bring her home — not in the way we had hoped, but at least now we know she’s safe.”

No arrests have been made in Amber’s death, but Escondido police have said convicted sex offender John Albert Gardner III is a focus of their investigation. Gardner is being held without bail after pleading not guilty to charges of rape and murder in the death of Poway teenager Chelsea King. Chelsea, 17, disappeared Feb. 25 after going for a run in Rancho Bernardo Community Park. Her body was found in a shallow grave near Lake Hodges five days later.

Amber’s memorial will pay tribute to Chelsea and to Danielle van Dam and Polly Klaas, two other slain children whose parents offered support to Amber’s parents over the agonizing months.

Brenda and Damon van Dam lost their 7-year-old daughter, Danielle, in 2002, when she was abducted from their Sabre Springs home by a neighbor and murdered.

Polly Klaas, 12, was kidnapped from her Northern California home by a stranger and murdered in 1993. Dubois and McGonigle asked Polly’s father, Marc Klaas, and his KlaasKids Foundation for Children to help search for Amber.

On Saturday, the parents of all four girls will release doves in their honor.

Chelsea’s parents, Kelly and Brent King, said the parents are forever linked by their children’s tragic deaths.

“The only other people who can truly understand what you’re going through and walk in your shoes are, unfortunately, the ones who have been there themselves,” Kelly King said. “So, I think you’re forever bound in experience and grief.”

Amber’s love of animals will be reflected at her memorial in ways that surely would have tickled the teen. She was the kind of girl who wore the same necklace for months because the ebony center on its silver pendant set off the shape of a tiny shining wolf. Amber loved wolves — their beauty, strength and the natural world they represented.

At the memorial, Frankie the TV star wolf will be one of a number of special animal guests. Frankie will be brought from Working Wildlife ranch north of Los Angeles, which is home to more than 100 animals that perform in television and movie productions.

The year-old black male wolf has appeared on late-night talk shows and the HBO vampire series “True Blood.”

“We were asked to bring them as a tribute to Amber’s love for animals, and we were happy to do that,” said Karla Majewski, owner of the private zoo that offers educational programs. “We chose these animals because we were told they were some of her favorites.”

Amber had been carrying a check for $200 the morning she disappeared. The money would have paid for a lamb she planned to raise as an FFA project.

The Escondido High FFA raised the animal and sold it last year in Amber’s name, donating the proceeds to search efforts.

McGonigle said her hope for the memorial is that “everybody leaves knowing who Amber was and that everyone leaves knowing that she lived a good life.”

One legacy of Amber’s disappearance has been an increased awareness of the need to teach teens self-defense strategies.

Escondido High Principal Rich Watkins said that awareness surged after Chelsea was killed.

“Amber was just being a kid when she was walking to school,” Watkins said. “It’s our job as adults to heighten their awareness but not to create fear. What would be truly tragic is if we didn’t learn from this.”

Escondido High and other schools in the district have emphasized that students shouldn’t walk alone and runners should train in groups. Last weekend, the school hosted a self-defense course for students.

Amber’s death “just opened our eyes,” said parent Lisa Schmitt, whose daughter, Jenna, took an agriculture class with Amber. “We can’t raise victims. Kids have to know what’s out there.”

In recent days, students from Escondido schools have collected 2,000 signatures on a petition calling for better enforcement and more funding for laws regarding sex offenders.

“Amber was just walking on the street, and a lot of kids do that. It could have been anybody,” said Escondido High junior Hannah Navarra. “We’re doing this to show that there are kids at our schools who don’t feel safe and need these laws enforced.”